Best Practice

One of the ways in which the Commissioner seeks to raise standards is to issue guidance to police bodies on handling complaints.

The Commissioner's statutory guidance, From Sanctions to Solutions, was originally issued in 2011. Without being prescriptive, it sets out minimum standards for the way that police forces should respond to complaints from the public. Read From sanctions to solutions.

In April 2013 the statutory guidance was updated in light of changes made to the definition of a complaint about the police in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. Other changes to the guidance have been made to clarify certain points or reflect the findings of audits subsequently carried out by the Commissioner. Read the update here.